


Till Dawn

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Gen, Harry is 8, Hurt/Comfort, Imaginary Friends, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Pre-Hogwarts, or maybe not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-08-10 00:21:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7822981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The boy’s teeth had been bothering him for going on two weeks, and Aunt Petunia refused to take him to the dentist due to the dire state of her finances.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Till Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> The referenced abuse is done by the Dursleys. Mostly emotional abuse, but with hints of starvation/malnutrition, and neglect.

In Little Whinging, inside the cupboard under the stairs of the house number 4 of Privet Drive, where only normal - if slightly boring - things ever happened, there lay a boy, still and shivering on a makeshift bed in the dead of the night. Harry Potter couldn’t sleep, unlike his uncle whose booming snores had started shaking dust out of the ceiling hours ago, to the great distress of some poor, unsuspecting spiders.

 

The boy’s teeth had been bothering him for going on two weeks, and Aunt Petunia refused to take him to the dentist due to the dire state of her finances.

 

She’d said so while signing up for a sophisticated blender in a magazine, satisfied with the thought that this would show the neighbour from up the street and the brand new ice maker she just wouldn’t stop gushing about.

 

Unbeknown to the boy, a fever had taken hold of his body at some point during the night, feeding strange, vivid dreams to his state of half-consciousness.

 

His teeth were acting up again, and it hurt so much.

 

‘’ _Harry._ ‘’

 

At first he didn’t acknowledge the voice, see. There was a trickle of sweat slowly crawling down his forehead, and Harry’s tired mind was hard pressed to make the distinction between it and the other hallucinatory feedback it was sorting through.

 

‘’ _Harry…_ ’’

 

It was nice, though. Somewhat soothing. People rarely ever called his name soothingly, so he knew it was a dream, albeit a better one than the one involving the sound of brakes and screams. The voice seemed to want him to listen, and he clung to it, craving the nice feeling and wanting it to take the pain away. A small warmth lit up inside his belly at the thought, just like the matchstick did the little match seller’s hands in the story the teacher told them at school.

 

‘’ **Harry.** ’’

 

His eyes opened.

 

A hand materialized in front of him, soon followed by the body of a young man, breathtakingly handsome and floating in mid-air.

 

It held out its hand. When no reaction seemed forthcoming, the ghost raked its spidery fingers through Harry’s fringe, slowly pushing his sweaty hair out of his face, then cupping his cheek.

 

‘’You’ve been making things unnecessarily difficult.‘’ The ghost tutted.

 

Harry’s opinion on that must have shown on his face, because the ghost’s demeanor changed at once.

 

‘’Harry.‘’ It said, with a voice that could have melted butter. The small matchstick definitely flared up again inside Harry’s belly. ‘’Come away with me.‘’

 

Before he could think of protesting, let alone doing it at all, for he didn’t have any strength left for speech ; the ghost interrupted him by petting his too-hot cheek again.

 

It actually took some of the pain away, to Harry’s puzzlement. As if it knew exactly what he was thinking, the ghost smirked, a barely there upturn of the lip. Come to think of it, it was mildly disturbing that he could see anything at all in his pitch-black cupboard. How it was that he could make out the outlines of its face, then, without his glasses…

 

The ghost studied him.

 

‘’It’s magic.‘’ It finally said.

 

 _How?_ Harry wanted to ask.

 

‘’Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.‘’

 

And, for a couple seconds, or what could have been minutes, he didn’t. The dream was kind of persuasive.

 

Even though he would never admit it, there was also the fact that he liked being touched by these soft if cold hands. He’d been jealous of the hugs Aunt Petunia gave Dudley before putting him to bed, when the dummy didn’t flat out reject her.

 

The ghost’s facial expression closed off, and Harry flinched. 

 

‘’Stop that.‘’ It grabbed his wrists and chin. ‘’Not you, you idiot. They have no right, you hear me? No right.‘’ The words were all but spat in its – his – anger. ‘’I can take you away from this hell-hole.‘’

 

But Harry felt like crying. It was a cruel dream after all.

 

‘’Come with me.‘’ The ghost urged again. ‘’Quick, before the sun rises.‘’

 

_Who are you?_

 

‘’You know the answer to that, Harry Potter.‘’

 

Harry eyed the palm before him with some difficulty. His aunt would not appreciate finding him gone. He’d have to go without food for days and wait for the trip to the bathroom again to parch his sore throat with tap water, like a dog. He didn’t think it was worth the risk.

 

At the same time, he felt it was, very much so. The tiny part of Harry’s mind that kept thinking up bad things couldn’t leave well enough alone. Like it actually wanted to land him in the centre for criminal boys his relatives kept bringing up. Maybe he just was irredeemable like they said, maybe he was rotten to the core. He knew they had to be wrong about his parents (because how could his parents be bad people?), but Harry was convinced the accident which took Lily and James Potter’s life had to be his fault somehow. Maybe if he hadn’t been in the car, they would be okay. Strange things happened around Harry. Bad things.

 

Harry cried silently. His shaking hand had grabbed the ghost’s, holding on for dear life.

 

Nothing happened.

 

‘’All you have to do is say the words.‘’ Tom Riddle said, smiling now. The sight was almost scary.

 

‘’Please.‘’ Harry croaked, throat dry. He didn’t care what the ghost did to him, if he was a demon come to kidnap him for being evil.

 

“ **Please…take me away.** ”

 

 

“ _Tom…?_ ”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm gravityemblem on tumblr. Come say hi if you want!


End file.
